[Individual differences in global vs. local visual perception of hierarchical stimuli under conditions of free and forced recognition].

Sixteen adult subjects were asked to recognize hierarchical letters at either local or global levels. The experiment included two sessions, corresponding to free recognition and forced recognition with the attention directed to a specific level of hierarchy. The analysis of recognition errors and reaction time in the condition of free recognition revealed two individual strategies of visual perception: the "global strategy" (the global level was chosen more frequently) and the "local strategy" (the local level was chosen more frequently). In the condition of forced recognition, the subjects who preferred the "global strategy" demonstrated the expected "global interference effect". The representatives of the "local strategy" showed the inversion of this effect, i.e. their reaction time significantly increased during recognition of the conflict stimuli at the global level.